A Father's Promise
by theflowermaid
Summary: Natsu Dragneel and his goddaughter Meena Randall have been living together ever since her beloved mother and former member of the guild Jodha had mysteriously died when she was a baby and it was discovered that Jodha had made Natsu her only daughter's godfather. However, how did they ever truly cement themselves as a family unit? (Get ready for some feels and please review! :D)


**A Father's Promise**

Natsu remembered that day.

He remember the day when he thought life couldn't get any more confusing and yet...more sweeter than it was. He remembered her exact words. She was only three years old when she said it. Scared out of her mind and crying, he recalled the day when she said to him:

_"I feel happy here,_ _dad!"_ she had said._ "My home is here, with you!"_

_"Then don't you worry,"_ Natsu said to her, holding her in his arms._ "As long as I'm with you, nothing will ever come to harm you."_

He started to relive the events leading to that memory when a voice startled him.

"Natsu? Are you feeling alright?"

Snapped out of his daydream, he looked up to the concerned face of his girlfriend, Lucy Heartfilia.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he replied. "Just wondering what else to get for Meena's 8th birthday."

Lucy arched one of her eyebrows and sat down next to him with a smile. "If you are thinking about baking Meena a cake, forget about it. Remember the last time you tried to make a cake for her?"

Natsu's mind wandered to the scene of batter mix exploding all over the house after he tried to bake a strawberry cake for Meena Randall's 4th birthday because he tried to bake the two layer cake by using Dragon Slayer magic. The cake exploded and had covered him, Lucy, Happy and Meena. Defeated, he gave up on it and as he cleaned Meena up, she said to him,_ "Dad, you don't have to make me anything. All I care about is that you are able to spend time with me."_

He smiled at that thought. He must have been silent for more than a minute, because Lucy put her hand on his shoulder and said gently, "Natsu, she's your goddaughter. She'll be happy with anything you do for her. You're the only family she's got besides..." Lucy choked up on her words but Natsu understood what she was trying to say.

"Thanks, Lucy. But don't start crying on me." He put a hand on her head and bumped his forehead to her's. "The next time I want to see any tears from your eyes, its tears of happiness. Got it?"

Lucy nodded and let out a tiny laugh. "Yeah, Natsu. I got it."

They enjoyed the bliss for a bit until Natsu realized that it was close to sunset, he needed to pick up Meena's present and that he needed to make Meena dinner before Happy suddenly decided to unintentionally cause her stomach pain again.

"Ahh! I gotta run! I swear, if I find a raw, uncooked fish sitting on Meena's plate..."

"Natsu, you're overreacting again..." Lucy had started to say but Natsu didn't hear her as he had already rushed out the guild entrance to their house.

As he ran, he thought about the devastating reactions of him and the rest of the S-Class competitors when they found out that Jodha Randall had died mysteriously from an unknown disease and how her husband was later killed in a horse carriage accident shortly before they escaped Tenrou island. A few months after they got the news (and Tartarus), Jodha's half-sister, Nikita had visited the guild bringing Jodha's daughter Meena with her, along with the rather astonishing news that Jodha made Natsu her only daughter's godfather. Nikita wouldn't tell exactly how Jodha died but handed Meena over to Natsu's care, saying that she'll be safe and happy here. Ever since then, he, Meena and Happy have been living happily together. Meena easily integrated into their lives rather nicely and now it was impossible to imagine life without her. But the one day that Natsu swore that he'd never forget was the one that truly cemented him and Meena as a family unit...

* * *

><p><em>5 years ago...<em>

"Geez this stinks! This job was a complete waste of time!"

"I told you it wasn't worth it to begin with, Natsu. Even Lucy stayed behind at the guild because of your naïvety about it."

"Well, the reward was high, what did you expect Happy?! And Lucy stayed behind because she's babysitting Meena!"

Happy sighed. "Natsu, you never cease to amaze me." He held up a bag, which had their 500,000 jewels in it. "Anyway, what should we do with it? Go eat at a restaurant?"

Natsu hesitated. Ever since they got the reward, he had his mind on getting his three-year old goddaughter Meena a teddy bear. He didn't want to spoil Happy's enthusiasm but Happy sensed his doubt immediately and changed his answer. "Or...we can buy Lucy and Meena a present!"

"I was thinking about a teddy bear for Meena," Natsu lightened up as they both reached their house. "Oi, Meena!" he called out as he entered the house, "You want to go shopping for a teddy bear? You can pick out the biggest -"

He stopped as he saw Meena Randall peeking out her bedroom door. The minute she saw Natsu coming in through the door, she rushed out and a gave a hug big as a three-year old can give. "Welcome home, dad!" She gave the same adorable smile she's been giving him since the day she started living with them.

Natsu hugged her back as Lucy came out of Meena's bedroom. "She practically had her face glued to the living room window all afternoon waiting for you two to return," said Lucy. "It took me a good ten minutes to get her away from the window so that I could feed her dinner. I was just about to put her to sleep when you guys opened the door."

"Is that so?" Natsu asked Meena. He rubbed her head as she nodded. Then he stood up and put her on his shoulders. "Then I'll make sure I'll try to come home early next time!"

"Aye sir!" Happy cried out. Everybody laughed as they talked about their day. Two hours later, Meena started getting sleepy and Natsu tucked her into bed. Before he turned off the light, Meena called out to him.

"Dad?"

He turned around. "Yeah, what do you need?

Meena squirmed. "Can you stay in here for the night?"

Natsu raised an eyebrow, confused. "Eh? Why? There are no monsters under the bed. I cleared them all out, remember?"

Meena was silent for a minute before saying, "Never mind. I can handle myself. I should be able to sleep like a big girl, right?"

He went back to the bed, worried. "Meena, what's going on? You can tell me. I can stay in here if you need me to."

She shook her head and smiled at him. "Dad, I'm fine. Forget that I said that. Sweet dreams."

Still worried, Natsu eventually relented. "Alright. Don't let the bed bugs bite." He kissed her on the forehead and turned off the lights.

The next morning, he woke up with the worry still swirling inside him. What was Meena exactly scared about? And why did it fill him with dread? Not being able sleep any longer, he got up and went to Meena's bedroom. Opening the door, he saw Meena sleeping in her bed with a strained expression and sweat covering her entire face. Natsu was becoming rapidly concerned. The reason was because this was not the first time he had seen her like this in the mornings. In fact, its been happening for almost a week now. He walked up to her bed and shook her awake.

"Oi, Meena," he said gently. "Wake up. It's 8 am right now."

Meena's eyes fluttered open seconds later. Her eyebrows were scrunched up in vain. It looked like she had gone through another nightmare.

"Morning already?" Meena yawned. She sat up and rubbed her eyes. "Five more minutes? Please?"

"Sorry kiddo," he replied. "We're heading over to the guild today. And it's about time you had breakfast."

Meena fully opened her eyes and what Natsu saw clearly confirmed that there was something going on. Because when she opened them, he saw her pupils turn golden-yellow. He recalled his memories of her mother, Jodha, during her time with the guild. He remembered how her eye color always turned into different colors according to her mood: green for when she was really happy, blue for when she was next to the person she loved, purple for when she was sad about something and or someone, amber for when she was really angry and yellow for fear. Natsu knew that feelings weren't skin deep. He also knew that with feelings, they ran deeper than most would think. Just like that, whenever Jodha felt unreasonably happy, her green eyes would light up the room, and when the feeling of happiness was moderate, her eyes would be a shade darker.

Meena had inherited those unique color changing eyes from her mother.

And golden-yellow meant that she was terrified out of her mind.

When she blinked again, they turned back to her natural eye color (black) but Natsu wasn't fooled. He was determined to get to the bottom of this. And he knew just the person who could help.

Later that afternoon, Natsu went to Lucy and explained his predicament.

"Eh?" Lucy asked. "You want me to sneak into her dreams?"

Lucy's jaw had dropped when Natsu had told her that he needed her to use one of the Celestial spirits in order to find out how to solve Meena's little nightmare predicament.

"Well, not exactly sneak..." Natsu corrected himself while Lucy scrutinized him gravely. "More like...er..." he eventually trailed off, realizing that explaining the situation is as hard as it is already. "Look, I just need Crux to look into her dreams at night in order to see what exactly is giving her nightmares."

Lucy sighed. "Natsu...I really want to help you. But are you sure this is the right way to go about it?"

"Lucy, I...I don't know what to do. All I want is for Meena to stop suffering from these nightmares."

Lucy pondered for a minute. "Well...can you wait one more night? See if they can be stopped on their own. If they can't, I'll come by tomorrow night."

Natsu was a tiny disappointed that she couldn't do it that night but nodded anyway. "Okay then. I'll give it a try." He stood up and walked over to Meena, who was drawing with Asuka Connell.

"What are you two drawing?" Natsu asked as he approached them.

"I asked them to draw something that was precious to them," Bisca Connell replied as Natsu watched over them. "It'll keep them busy for a bit."

Asuka was apparently drawing her parents and Grandpa Makarov, though her mom's aqua hair looked like as though it had gone through a dryer, her dad looked like a brown paper bag with black hair and Grandpa Makarov was almost unrecognizable. Meena was probably a little difficult to decipher. There was a cat, which Natsu assumed was Happy because the cat was blue with wings. It looked more amusing by the minute. _Wait till Happy sees how Meena drew him, _he thought as he smirked. Next to that, was a drawing of a man with spiked salmon colored hair...just like his. He realized that she was drawing Natsu himself and next to that, was the guild mark. Under the guild mark was a girl with black hair and eyes: herself. And finally, next to the girl, was a woman with yellow hair and a dress. Raising an eyebrow, Natsu thought that it was hilarious to see Lucy in a get-up like that. Then again, he had seen her in a dozen more stranger outfits...

Meena then suddenly stood up, holding the drawing proudly above her head. "I'm done!" she exclaimed.

"Really?" asked Bisca. "Let's see it then."

Meena handed her the drawing and as Bisca glanced at it, her face slowly grew into a huge smile. "This is beautiful Meena. Asuka, let's see yours."

Asuka gave her's and the reaction was the same. She tried to give the drawing back to her but her daughter refused it.

"That's for you and papa," Asuka smiled happily.

"Is that so? Thank you!" Bisca rubbed her head and turned to Meena. "And are you going to give it to anyone?"

"Yup!" Meena took the drawing, walked over to Natsu and gave him the piece of paper.

"You're giving it to me?" Natsu asked, surprised.

"Bisca-san asked me to draw what was precious to me, so I thought I'd draw the four of us at our house."

Looking closely at the paper, he saw that the background was their house with a huge heart drawn above it. Smiling, he folded it up and tucked it away into his pocket.

"Natsu," Mira called out. "Are you going on a job today? Me and Lisanna can take care of her while you guys are gone."

"Nah, it's all good. Meena and I are going to the beach today." He turned to Lucy and Happy, who were arguing about something. Happy kept on mentioning the word _love _while Lucy, with her face red as a cherry, was apparently trying to shut him up. "Lucy, Happy, you coming?"

"Aye!" they both said immediately in unison. They seemed to do that a lot lately whenever he called on them. It was weirder than ever for Natsu to notice that this happened every time they seem to be arguing.

"What's up with you two lately?" he asked them as he put Meena on his shoulders. "We're going to the beach. You comin'?

Happy suddenly lifted Lucy up in the air about three inches from the floor.

"Hey, what are you doing-" Lucy started to shout but Happy intervened as he flew her outside: "Race you there Natsu!"

"Dad, we can't let them beat us!" said Meena, her innocent eyes wide with determination, "So let's go!"

"Yeah, we definitely won't lose to them!" he replied. "I'm all fired up!"

Natsu started running with Meena shouting gleefully while rapidly thinking of ways to try to stop her nightmares.

* * *

><p>"Natsu, are you sure you're okay carrying Meena?" Happy asked Natsu. "You're eventually gonna get a back ache sooner or later."<p>

"Happy, I'm completely fine with carrying my sleeping goddaughter home," Natsu retorted. "And what about me getting a back ache?!"

Lucy sighed with a tone of annoyance. "Guys, don't wake her up with your arguing." A smile came up on her face as she added, "She looks so peaceful and angelic when she's sleeping on your shoulder, Natsu. I would have asked to carry her myself but I don't want to wake her up."

"Eh, its fine Lucy."

"On the other hand, why are you two walking me home?"

It took a moment for Natsu to absorb what she just said. "It's past sunset and I don't want to anyone to suddenly capture you and hold you hostage."

Lucy blanked out and finally smacked her forehead a minute later. "What exactly goes on in that brain of yours, Natsu...?"

"In short, he loooooves you," Happy's voice rolled.

"Shut up, will you?!" fumed Lucy. She was turning red again. Natsu never could figure out Lucy these days. But the last thing he wanted her to know for now was that he was starting to develop feelings for her.

After dropping a very shaky Lucy off at her apartment, he and Happy went back home with an exhausted Meena. They had a good time at the beach, but Meena had started to get sleepy halfway back to Magnolia so Natsu had carried her the rest of the way. When he tucked her into bed, he suddenly realized that he hadn't really seen her sleep, and that Lucy was right. She did look peaceful and angelic...Like she didn't have any nightmares at the moment.

_Maybe everything is gonna be fine, _Natsu thought to himself. _Maybe she won't get nightmares tonight._

Boy was he wrong.

Two hours later, Natsu was jolted awake with a shrill scream. "AHHHHHHHHH! NO, MAKE IT STOP!"

"Meena!" he rushed to the bedroom and practically busted the door open. Meena was sitting up in her bed, crying harder than Grandpa Makarov when he had first banished Laxus from Fairy Tail.

"Meena, what happened?!" he asked urgently as he sat on the bed opposite to her. He pulled her up to his lap and tried to calm her down.

"There was a huge man..." Meena hiccupped between words, "A huge man coming towards me with a knife..."

"A knife...? Why in the world would you have a nightmare like that?"

"He keeps on coming into my head. Daddy...make them stop, please..."

Looking at her sobbing face, Natsu couldn't take it anymore. "That's it," he declared, "I'm staying in here for the night."

Tears streaked down Meena's cheeks as he wiped them off with his thumb. He laid her down on the bed and got a towel from the night stand, wiped the sweat off her face and laid down on the bed beside her.

"Go to sleep," he said soothingly. "Don't worry about anything. I'm right here."

Meena sniffed. Two minutes later, with Natsu's hand on her head, she fell back into sleep.

Natsu couldn't sleep. He kept thinking about what Meena said she dreamt about. A huge man with a knife...was it hovering above her? If so, why is it appearing all of a sudden? He couldn't think. He needed to figure out what in the ever loving world was going on. was going on. He couldn't shake off the feeling that there was something much deeper with her nightmares. He woke up Happy and told him to bring Lucy immediately.

"Natsu, she won't like waking up in the middle of the-"

"Tell her it's urgent. I have a feeling that this can't wait until tomorrow."

Happy nodded and flew out the window. He came back with Lucy ten minutes later. When Lucy saw Meena sleeping with her tear stained cheeks, she dug through her keys until she found the one key she was looking for: Crux. She put the key in Meena's tiny grip.

"Crux..." said Lucy, "Can you take a look into her dreams for me? Can you-" Lucy stopped talking as her eyes widened. Taking on a bewildered expression, she put her hand on Meena's and closed her eyes. For a minute or two, everything was quiet and Lucy and Meena were both fine. But after that, their faces became strained. Lucy's eyebrows were getting scrunched up in agony as each minute passed. Meena looked like she might wake up screaming again. Finally, Lucy pulled her hand off Meena's, looking traumatized. She pulled out the key from Meena's hand as slowly as she could and put it back with the rest of her keys. His goddaughter's face became serene again.

"Um...Lucy..." Happy trailed off into silence as Lucy started breathing hard.

"Natsu..." Lucy started to cry, clenching her skirt with her fists. "Those aren't...those aren't..."

Natsu sat down besides Lucy and put his hand on her shoulder. "Lucy, what happened there? Did you see anything?"

The second Natsu said that, Lucy completely lost it. She broke down into sobs, her face now in her hands. The only time Natsu had ever seen her like this was when Éclair died with the Phoenix stone destroyed. Lucy buried her face into Natsu when he pulled her towards him to console her. When she calmed down, she continued shakily, "Those aren't just nightmares, Natsu. Those are...her memories back in England of her mother getting killed."

"Killed?!" Natsu said, horrified. "What the hell do you mean, Lucy?"

"Her own grandfather..." said Lucy while glancing sorrowfully at Meena, "How could he...?"

Just then, Natsu heard a knock and a _thump_. Then he heard a familiar screaming of anger, along with a _yee-hah! _After that, a furious voice rang out that said, _"HOW DARE YOU COME HERE OF ALL PLACES?! HAVEN'T YOU CAUSED MY SISTER ENOUGH PAIN ALREADY?!"_

"Eh? What in the world are Erza and Bisca doing out there?" he asked as he stood up to go outside with Lucy to see what the ruckus was about. When he opened the door, they saw Erza in her Adamantine Armor, the lightning blue eyes of Nikita Ranjistani blazing with fury, Mirajane in her Satan Soul Take Over and Bisca's magic sniper gun pointed at an old man with a white beard and sharp green eyes. Glancing back at Lucy, he noticed a sudden change inside her. It turned her from being a mournful soul into someone burning with vengeance. Grabbing one of her keys as she went towards him, she chanted the spell: "_Open the Gate of the Maiden, Virgo!"_

The Celestial spirit of Virgo appeared before them as Erza and Mira desperately tried to stop Lucy from going any further.

"Do you need me to be punished, _Hime?" _asked Virgo.

Lucy shook her head, facing Virgo with a type of fury Natsu had never seen before. "Just get that family wrecking bastard out of our sights."

Everybody stared at her in utter shock, including Virgo. Natsu was even more flabbergasted at this point. It wasn't even like Lucy to call someone a bastard, no matter what wrong they did. Virgo, however, obliged and went underground, pulling the old man with them. Virgo appeared out of another hole and where the old man laid, was a huge hole with the man in tow.

Pieces of the puzzle suddenly started to piece together in Natsu's mind. Nikita's fury, Lucy sobbing her eyes out after looking into Meena's dreams...and it came to him. He finally realized Nikita's and Lucy's fury. Facing Lucy, he asked gravely, "Lucy...what did Meena's nightmares exactly show you?"

Nikita turned to Natsu. "Nightmares? She's been having nightmares?"

Natsu tried to explain but Lucy beat him to the punch. "The poor kid's been traumatized. According to Natsu, she's been having nightmares for a week. He came to me yesterday afternoon asking me to help him find a way to stop them. Natsu...that man in that hole, is Meena's grandfather." Pulling her head and facing Nikita fiercely, she added, "With that said Nikita, why don't you tell Natsu what _really_ happened to Jodha? He's her godfather for crying out loud...he has a right to know...considering that he's the one who has raised Meena since her mum got killed..."

Tears leaked out of Lucy's eyes once again as a voice behind Natsu rang out, "Dad? What's going on here?"

Turning around, he saw Meena standing at their doorstep, rubbing her eyes as she walked towards the scene.

"Meena, what's wrong?" Natsu asked immediately. "Is it another nightmare?"

Meena shook her head as she neared the hole. "I heard loud and scary voices." She stopped at the edge of the hole and peered inside. When she saw her grandfather in the hole, she recoiled in horror and started crying instantly.

"Meena!" he turned her body towards him, wiping her tears. "Oi, don't cry. Nothing's gonna happen to you."

"Natsu's right," confirmed Lucy. "Your grandfather can't hurt you while he's around."

Meena tried to dry her tears. "But...that's the man who appeared in my dreams. He had a knife with him. He had it above me when mummy came into the room. There was screaming and mummy was lying on the floor. Then there was lots of people and they took the man away."

After hearing what Meena said, Natsu finally realized why Lucy reacted the way she did. Anger building up inside him like a wall of bricks, he shouted at her grandfather: "YOU BASTARD!"

Natsu jumped into the hole and punched her grandfather out. Full with rage, he pulled him by the shirt, yelling furiously, "HOW COULD YOU?! SHE WAS YOUR OWN DAUGHTER DAMMIT!"

The king smirked. "So this is the welcome I get for trying to visit my granddaughter?"

Natsu's eyes grew into slits. He threw Jodha's dad at the nearby tree. "_The hell you are! _You're not getting anywhere near Meena on my watch!"

Jodha's dad laughed maniacally. "You know why I killed her?" he asked, his tone deadly soft, "It's because she was supposed to be the heir to my kingdom throne. But I didn't think anything of my biological daughter because she explicitly stated that she didn't want it. But then she got married to one of the sons of the influential Randall family and started a family. What if the kid grew up wanting to kill my son for it? So I decided to kill her myself. I would have succeeded if it weren't for my meddlesome daughter. So I killed her as fast as I could but Nikita and her mother got wind of the fact that I was in the house and Scotland Yard was called to the scene. I got off scotch free two months later, only to accidentally come across a letter address to someone in Magnolia..." He pointed to Natsu, "You. I realized that Nikita had brought Meena here to you so that she could be away from me."

"That," Mira said murderously, "is literally the dumbest reason I have ever heard!"

"She was only a baby!" Erza yelled, picking up her sword and throwing it at the retired king, narrowly missing him by an inch. "What the hell could she have done as a baby?!"

Filling Natsu with rage more than ever, he wanted to give the murdering psycho a final blow. But Nikita interrupted before he could do anything, his fire blazing fist frozen in its place.

"I did that so she could be away from your murdering hands!" Nikita screamed, shaking with anger. "Jodha was already dying from an illness. You basically just spared her the suffering most people with incurable diseases go through. What you did you however, is leave Meena without a loving parent. I was too young at that time to take care of her and mum was getting old. The only place I could think of then was Fairy Tail, after reading Jodha's unsent letter to Natsu. And looking at the current state of things..." Nikita glanced at Natsu, smiling through her tears, "...I made the right choice in bringing her here."

Natsu felt a hand on his arm and somehow, it calmed him down. The flame that covered his fist went out as he realized the comforting hand was Lucy's.

"Don't do this, Natsu," said Lucy. "He's not worth it."

Gritting his teeth, he eventually realized that she was right. As horrible as this git was, vengeance was not the answer. He relaxed his muscles, glared at Meena's grandfather for a minute, and turned his back on him. "You shouldn't even be alive right now. Get out before I change my mind."

And as Natsu walked a few steps, he felt something fall on both of his cheeks. His vision got blurry as he felt a much smaller hand tugging on his jacket. Looking down, he saw that it was Meena trying to get his attention.

He knelt down so that he was head to head to her. Meena didn't say anything, but rather simply came closer and wiped something off his face. That's when Natsu realized that his vision hadn't gone awry. Nor was it raining. As Meena wiped water off his face, he became aware that he was crying. Under normal circumstances, he would have wiped his tears off and hopefully would've been on his merry way. But at this point, he was way past the point of caring about who saw him cry. Knowing that his own goddaughter was nearly murdered, he didn't care who told him off for being scared and weak. But as he thought about being scared, he thought about what Gildarts had once said to him: _Fear is not 'Evil'. It is to simply know your own weakness. If you know your weakness, people can become strong and gentle._

Gildarts wasn't just talking about what it took to become a S-class Mage when he said that. He was talking about it in a way that applies to everything in life. And taking these words into heart, he hugged Meena tightly while he sobbed his eyes out.

"I love you, Meena," he whispered hoarsely, "I love you so much. You mean the world to me. I hope you know that."

"Of course I know that, dad," replied Meena. "I feel happy here." She put the palm of her hand on his chest. "My home is here, with you and Happy and Lucy-san and the rest of the guild."

"Then don't you worry. As long as I'm here, no nightmare will ever attack you again."

Meena buried her face in her godfather's jacket as they both come to the fact that they were going to face the uncertainty of their future...together.

* * *

><p><em>Present<em>

Natsu reached the house, breathless from running so hard. He had to pick up Meena's present from Wendy's house, so reaching home before sunset was a bit tricky. Natsu could only hope that Happy had a hot pot of stew on the stove for dinner...especially since Meena loved stew. He opened the door.

"Oi, Happy!" he hollered. "You aren't making Meena eat fish again, are you?!"

Happy didn't answer. He did, however, find Meena sitting on the sofa, reading a book.

"Hey dad," she raised her hand in greeting. "Welcome home. And no, Happy's not making me eat fish. Besides, I want to know how your little date with Lucy went."

Natsu discreetly put his present on the nearby table stand. He then proceeded to cross his arms like a kid and pout as he blushed. "It was not a date. I was simply helping her clear out some rodents that were in her apartment."

Meena laughed brightly. She got up from the sofa and walked up to him, her hands behind her back. "Right, right. I'll believe you. Just as soon as I'm ready to believe that Gray will drop his stripping habit." She rolled her eyes while crossing her arms and smiling happily. "Dad, you were with her the entire day today. How could that not count as a date?"

"Because I said so. And cleaning rats out of an apartment is not my idea of a romantic date."

Meena burst out laughing even harder, clutching her stomach as Natsu lost his façade and started laughing along with her.

"Speaking of which, where is Happy?" asked Natsu after the laughter died down.

"He said that he had to get something for me," said Meena as she sighed. "No matter how many times I say that I'm totally fine with not getting a present for my birthday, the guild members keep pouring me with gifts. I don't mind the birthday wishes though."

Natsu ruffled her hair. "Meena, it looks like you'll never change. Everyone needs a bit of loving."

"Funny, that's exactly what Aunt Nikita and Grandma Srishti said."

This caught Natsu off guard. "Eh? Nikita and your grandma stopped by?"

"Yeah," said Meena. A sad smile suddenly appeared on her face. Her eyes, which were glowing green with happiness, became two shades darker. "Mum...she had some good times with the guild, didn't she?"

Natsu was stunned by the sudden mood change. "Meena...you know how much you mean to me and the rest of Fairy Tail. That guild mark on your left hand is proof of that."

"Dad, I know that," she replied. "But...I want to know. Did mum live a happy life?"

Natsu was getting more bewildered by her questions. But in retrospect, he actually understood why she would be asking this. With that, only one question remained.

"Meena...I get that you want to know more about your mother. But what in the world brought up this desire all of a sudden?"

Meena went back to the sofa to get the book that she was reading. When she gave to him, however, he realized that she had been looking at a photo album. And the handwriting looked familiar too. _No...it can't be..._

"This was..." Natsu trailed off. He thought he'd never see it ever again in his lifetime.

"Yeah," said Meena shakily. "Mum's old photo album. Grandma Srishti and Aunt Nikita couldn't stay long, but they told me that they found this old thing in mum's trunk. They gave it to me as a birthday present and said that you may recognize it instantly...which means that Aunt Nikita was right, I guess."

Wiping a tear from her left eye, she added, "There's pictures of you in there with mum and Lucy and the guild. There's pictures of my deceased dad too...Grandma always said that I got my other dad's nose..."

As Natsu looked through the album, each photo brought up one memory after another. Cana and Jodha pranking Wakaba. Mira trying to convince Jodha to wear a bikini. Lucy and Jodha bonding over the fact that their guild was crazy. It took all of Natsu's willpower in order not to burst out sobbing.

"Dad..." Meena said tentatively. "Can I tell you what I really want for my birthday this year?"

Natsu looked up, surprised that Meena actually wanted something. "Well, what is it that you want?" he asked her gently.

Meena looked at him with tears in her eyes. "Stories about my mum. Can you tell me about her? What her personality was like, her quirks...everything. Please?"

Natsu put the album on the sofa and pulled her into a hug as Meena started to let out restrained sobs. As she pulled out, Natsu answered, "Of course. I'd be happy to. But first, let me get your present."

"Dad -"

"Just trust me on this, Meena."

Meena tried to say something but no words came out. Eventually she nodded and wiped the tears off with the sleeve of her shirt as Natsu went to the table stand by the door to get the box with blue ribbons. Meena sat down to open the present to find an old medium-sized teddy bear.

"Wow, dad...um...you weren't kidding when you said that you were going to get me a teddy bear, were you?"

Natsu chuckled. He sat besides her and rubbed her shoulder. "That's not just any teddy bear, Meena. His name is Alexandre, or Alex is what you mother used to call him."

Meena's eyes widened in shock and happiness. "This used to be mum's?" she asked tenderly turning it over.

He nodded. "Yup. When she first came to the guild, she brought that bear with her, constantly saying that it was good luck. And in a way, it was. She became one of the most powerful mages in Fiore, found good friends in almost every single person she met- "

"Sounds like Lucy, doesn't it?" Meena smiled about the comparison. "It kinda makes sense. Were those two good friends?"

Natsu nodded. And for the rest of the night, he entertained her with the one thing she wanted that year: the stories and memories that flooded back into his heart by each one he told.

* * *

><p><strong><em>AN: Okay, I'll be the first one to admit: I cried a little when writing those last few paragraphs. And I hope this one shot made you laugh and cry (whichever comes first). If you liked it, comment and/or vote! Also, I'm all for constructive criticism! _**

**_Dedication: Hikari Kagami :D_**

**_See you later!_**


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